Jonah 1:1-6 Series

Jonah 1:1-6

Who is Jonah? Jonah is one of the bibles minor prophets and is the son of a man named Amittai from Gath Hepher in Galilee. Historians feel this book was written somewhere around 800 B.C.

As we go through this smaller book of the Old Testament my hope is to uncover and bring out some things that you haven't thought about before.

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

So why is Jonah considered a prophet? Well it states that God had given Jonah a message to to bring to the people of Nineveh. A prophet in the Old Testament is a person regarded as an inspired teacher and a pro-claimer of the will of God.

As we know in those days God worked with people directly and today God works with people through scripture. The Jonah of today receives a message from God through the Bible and then delivers that message to others. In some sense that makes us all Christians prophets to some extent or another.

Now we also like Jonah, have been given a message from God and are called like Jonah to go out and deliver this message. Our Message is Sin, Christ crucified, faith and repentance.

Here is the question, are you? Or are you running from God like Jonah is going to?

So what was this evil talked about in verse 2 that had God call Jonah to go there?

We need to look in the book of Nahum to get a better picture of it.

Nahum 3:1-5 ~ Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder—

no end to the prey! 2The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel,

galloping horse and bounding chariot! 3 Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end— they stumble over the bodies! 4 And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms. 5 Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts

It goes on -

10 Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity; her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; for her honored men lots were cast, and all her great men were bound in chains.

This calling to Jonah is to expose the evils of this place. It's not much different for us today, we are to do much the same. We are to expose the darkness of evil and bring into it the light of the holiness of God. Without exposing evil and in contrast showing God, the need for salvation is unfounded. In other words people need to know why God is against them and their evil ways so that they can then see the need for a Savior.

3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

I always say we need to hold up the truths of scripture to our own lives and evaluate how we are doing as a Christian and even if we are really a Christian at all.

I'll ask again, are you running from God and the calling He has given you in the mission as a Christian to go out into the world and share the gospel? If you are, I would urge you to stop running and submit to God and His calling for you.

If not will it take God bringing upon you something like what He is about to bring upon Jonah?

4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.

You see even though Jonah fled, God didn't give up on him. God still had His hand on Jonah and is now going to create circumstances in which Jonah will repent and come back to God and fulfill His will. Scripture says there is a point in which God may remove his hand from someones life who does not submit.

Is God still working on you?

5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”